Calcium Lactate Improves Egg Production and Quality in Aging Laying Hens

Recently, a landmark study was conducted by an innovation team at the Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Poultry Nutrition and Feed Innovation Team. Their research focused on the use of calcium lactate in the rearing of aged laying hens in order to find an effective strategy to deal with the health challenges commonly encountered by laying hens during the late laying period. These challenges include abnormal lipid metabolism, oxidative damage, immune function decline, calcium and phosphorus absorption and metabolism disorders, etc., which seriously affect the quality and yield of eggs and constitute a major problem for laying hens.

For the study, the team carefully selected 360 Hy-line brown laying hens at 62 weeks of age, which were at the end of their peak laying period. The researchers randomly assigned the hens to one of four different feeding groups, each with a different proportion of calcium lactate added to the diet. After a rigorous period of observation and data collection, they made an important finding: adding 0.5% calcium lactate to the diet significantly improved egg production performance, bone quality, and egg shell and protein quality in aged laying hens. This is mainly due to the positive effects of calcium lactate on liver and muscle health, intestinal digestion ability, calcium bioavailability, and intestinal immunity, which together provide a strong guarantee for the health of aged laying hens.

The breakthrough results of this innovative research have been published online in the internationally renowned academic journal Agriculture, which provides a solid scientific basis and innovative strategy for the feeding and management of aged laying hens. This finding not only helps to improve the economic efficiency and reduce the cost of laying hens, but also provides a new research direction and solution to solve the nutrition and health problems in poultry production, which has a far-reaching impact on promoting the sustainable development of global poultry industry.

It is worth mentioning that the success of this research can not be separated from the financial support of several important projects. These projects, including the Beijing Poultry Innovation Team Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, provide sufficient research resources and freedom for research teams, enabling them to conduct in-depth and comprehensive research, which has made important contributions to solving practical breeding problems and promoting industry progress.